Tilkunviilaaja®

I was going to analyse Lexical, the quilt that launched me as a pattern designer, but I ended up writing a post that isn’t really about the quilt itself. Instead, I found myself reflecting on my own journey. After all, only I can tell that story – anyone can analyse a quilt if they want to. Here’s my journey which led to publishing Lexical, my first commercial quilt pattern – and the journey did NOT begin with a thought “I’m going to become a quilt pattern designer”. Before Lexical, I already loved writing instructions I’d already published numerous quilt block tutorials on my blog and written tutorials and how-to articles for the Finnish quilting magazine. I had dreamed of putting together a book that would combine my quilt patterns with the stories behind the quilts. (Some ten years ago, I even had a professional designer create a couple of sample page layouts for me so that I could see how my book might look.) Back then, though, publishing something commercially was d...

This post is one of my Splendid colour tips series, where I share information to help you choose fabrics and colours for your quilts with more confidence. Today’s post is a little different because it isn’t about any specific colour. Instead, it discusses how you can use a single colour to effect in your quilt. One colour can be surprisingly versatile in quilting, and perhaps this post encourages you to experiment a little. I suggest three basic ways to discover the versatility of using just one colour in a quilting project:  Create a scrappy surface  Make single-coloured blocks Choose one colour and complement it with a neutral I’ve illustrated these three ways with examples of my quilts and quilted items. I also give an answer to the question: “Could the whole quilt be of one colour?” 1. Create a scrappy surface Using your fabric scraps is a low-threshold way to start exploring the idea of using just one colour in a quilt project. If you have a mishmash o...

This post is one of my Splendid colour tips series, where I share information to help you choose fabrics and colours for your quilts with more confidence. Today’s quilt colour is green, and I’ll be sharing the following: My thoughts and helpful tips about using green colour in quilts What to watch out for, and ways to use green effectively in quilting Practical examples from my own quilts and quilted items Green represents wealth, health, calm, and nature. It is the easiest colour for a human eye to process, and it is believed to have a relaxing effect on us. Green is the second most popular favourite colour for both women and men. Therefore, it is a great choice for a quilt or quilted item that should attract both sexes. An interesting piece of information related to the colour green is related to a Namibian tribe whose language has a single word for both green and blue. And it seems that consequently, it takes them a long time to identify a more bluish green square ou...

Welcome to my quilt studio! Today, I’ll share two quilting projects that I’ve recently been working on in my sewing space. Project 1: X blocks into a quilt top First, here are almost all the X blocks that I needed for my latest quilt project. See the clips that hold them together? I got a box full of number and letter clips from my friend Soile for my birthday, to use for tagging blocks. There is one of each number from zero to ten, and then alphabets. That’s why I had to be a little creative when using the clips to mark how many blocks there were in each stack. L3 is obviously 13. That was easy enough, but when I’d made all the blocks I needed, I really had to stretch my creativity! Z0 = ten; LT = eleven; I4 = 14, and the upside down J together with 5 make fifteen. I got the idea for these blocks when sewing different X blocks for the “Swiftly Flew the Long-eared Herald” quilt. It took me a couple of tries to get the measurements right (I can see this from the pho...